Obamacare signups more than doubled in Louisiana over the final month of open enrollment for 2014, according to federal statistics released Thursday. From Oct 1.- March 31, nearly 102,000 people signed up for the federal health care marketplace, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Louisiana Democrats' latest attempt to close the "Jindal Gap" in health care didn't make it out of the state legislature's ward. A state Senate committee voted down a proposed constitutional amendment that would have put the decision to take the Medicaid expansion offered by Obamacare to voters.

Governor Jindal announced his proposal for replacing the Affordable Care Act this morning at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor in Washington, DC. Viewed by many as a move to distinguish himself early from other hopefuls for the Republic presidential nomination, Jindal’s Freedom & Empowerment Plan (FEP) envisions a “Conservative Consumer-Focused Health Care” reform agenda.

With a deadline and an election season fast approaching, Democrats are once again under the Obamacare crunch this week. The officials in charge of the Affordable Care Act are trying to get the word out across Louisiana as they seek to encourage as many people signed up for the Affordable Care Act as possible. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is proposing changes to the law as she gears up for the midterm pressure cooker.

With the state legislative session in full gear, Baton Rouge is in its annual free-for-all of horse-trading and designating. But this week, the biggest political battleground is on the side of the Red Stick highway, rather than the House that Long Built. The skirmish involves an influential national progressive organization, a pair of state GOP pols with designs on higher office and, as ever in the current political climate, Obamacare.

With Bobby Jindal taking a harsh stance against Obamacare and many local pols following suit, Louisiana residents have become an easy target for those blasting opponents of the Affordable Care Act. Stephen Colbert highlighted phony Obamacare horror stories on his latest episode of The Colbert Report, and English actor Patrick Stewart flexed his acting chops as Chuck Duprey, a supposed Louisiana "workerman" who had a frightening run-in with big government healthcare. Click through to watch.

President Barack Obama inserted another health care decision into the pressure cooker of the midterm election cycle on Wednesday. With the Bayou State's U.S. Senate race set to hit another gear, the White House's move to extend the amount of time that people can keep pre-existing coverage illustrated how the law continues to be one of the key issues of the 2014 race.

On the political scene, New Orleans saw some old names like Ray Nagin and Charles Foti return in 2013. Meanwhile, BP and Bobby kept the Bayou State in the national spotlight once again. Peruse all of 2013's top stories, and grab a handful for the new year on the way out:

Recently, two policy groups essentially rebutted one of the largest talking points coming from opponents of Obamacare: employer-based insurance will decrease for Americans as the new Affordable Care Act reforms take hold. Not only is this borderline fear mongering by ACA opponents to turn the tides against national health care, turns out that the decline was taking place long before Obamacare and that public health care has been helping bridge the gap.

The 93,000 people in Louisiana who thought their health insurance would be canceled under Obamacare may get to keep their plan like the president promised after all. Late Wednesday, Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon announced that he would go along with a White House-proposed fix that would allow people to keep their plans for another year, even if they don't meet Affordable Care Act requirements.